Destiny 2: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

So for those of you who missed it, Shane and I had a very exciting day last week. We preordered a limited-edition Destiny 2 PS4 Pro, promptly went to pick it up right when the game came out, and then tore into it like kids on Christmas.

We also did an unboxing video for it, which you can check out here if you want to know just what the sarcasming sounds like in real life!

After we’d gotten everything out of the boxes and gone all googly-eyed over it, we set up the console and got ready to play the game—but forgot about the hours and hours of updates that need to happen. Which turns into a veeeeeery long time on a 10-mbps download speed.

Good decisions, right?

So, finally, the day after it came out, we had the chance to try out the new Destiny 2. Shane had played the original Destiny, and was geeking out over it. I was excited to try it for the first time.

Here’s what we learned!

The good

First off, kudos to Sony for making a special-edition console. It actually looks amazing. It also really did the game justice to play it in 4K, which I’ll get into later!

Now. The thing to keep in mind with Destiny 2 is that it had a lot to live up to. Best Shooter of E3, Best PC Game of E3 2017, Best Multiplayer of E3 2017, you get the picture.

The first few hours of gameplay were rather enlightening, if you’ll excuse the pun. There were quite a few things that were added to the sequel to make it easier to play (little things like maps, you know), and obviously it came with more content than the original.

It also had quite a lot of features that were more or less the same as the original, including its overall gameplay and also starting you off with exactly the same classes. It was perfectly natural for Shane, a seasoned player, to pick up. In fact, it even let him download his characters from his original Destiny game, which I thought was a nice touch.

It didn’t take long for a novice like me to pick it up, either. I’d never played a FPS before, but at one point, Shane handed me the controller and I didn’t die, so that’s a good thing, right?

The bad

As much as the game is wonderful, it’s got a few points it could improve on, too.

For example, there seems to be an issue with the competitive ranking system (namely, there isn’t one). Shane noticed that at level 6, he was being put up against level 200s who would run straight at him through an entire clip and a grenade all Deadpool-style just to shank him with a sword. The swear jar did well, but that’s all that did.

It was also a little weird to me that the game is entirely online. The first few days were rough, but the game worked much better once we got viable Internet.

This limitation to online play also meant that I, as a non-PS Plus guest account on my boyfriend’s machine, can’t actually play the game unless I use his account. I could get PS Plus, I suppose, but let’s face it. Ain’t got money for that, especially when we just got the special edition.

The ugly

Honestly, I’m not convinced there is anything ugly about the game. It’s done absolutely beautifully, and sometimes I can’t help staring at the way the sunlight shines over the distant mountains…

All poetry aside, I do think the devs did an awesome job with the details in the game, as well as the characters’ movement and expression. It was almost surreal, especially in 4K.

So there are my first thoughts on Destiny 2. Have you played it yet? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below! I love hearing from you guys.